This 19th century UES townhouse just traded hands for a loss

An Upper East Side townhouse that dates back to 1883 just sold for $21.5 million.

The seller, who paid $23.5 million for the property at 51 East 80th Street in 2014, took a loss on the deal. The townhouse was sold by North Fifth LLC, with Richard Gold as a managing member, according to records filed with New York City’s Department of Finance. Gold is an executive at private investment firm General Atlantic.

The buyer is Perranporth Inc. Andrew Ryan, an attorney at Brooklyn’s The Ryan Law Group, is the signatory and didn’t immediately respond to request for comment. Perranporth is the name of a town on the Atlantic coast in England.

Built in 1883 by Scottish architect John Jardine for developer Edward Kilpatrick, the 8,950-square-foot, 23-foot-wide brownstone has five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, and boasts an elevator and a wood-burning fireplace. The listing noted the home underwent a 3-year restoration.

Like the condo market, townhouse sales have also slowed. The first quarter saw $665 million in deals, down 18 percent from $816 million a year earlier, according to a Leslie J. Garfield report. Sales volume on the UES tumbled 23 percent while the average sales price falling 18 percent to $14.48 million.

But the market may be picking up, the report noted, thanks to an uptick in properties going into contract. In the first quarter, 10 townhouses were in contract, compared with five a year earlier.

Update: This story has been corrected to remove reference to Corcoran’s Leighton Candler, who was not the listing agent for this sale.